Midterm Evaluation Consultant for Strengthening Worker Rights in Armenia

Statement of Work – External Evaluation Services

Strengthening Worker Rights in Armenia

Cooperative Agreement S-LMAQM-21-GR-3269

November 2024

I PROJECT BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

1.1. Project Background and Goals

The Solidarity Center is the largest U.S.-based international worker rights organization. Its programs are based on the principle that, by exercising their right to freedom of association and forming trade unions and democratic worker rights organizations, working people can collectively improve their workplaces, call on governments to uphold laws and protect human rights, and be a force for democracy, social justice, and inclusive economic development. Its programs in more than 60 countries focus on human and worker rights awareness, union skills, occupational safety and health, gender equality, migration and forced labor, and proactive legal strategies, as well as bolster workers in an increasingly informal economy.

The Solidarity Center is currently implementing a program focused on ensuring workers and their organizations in Armenia understand their rights under national labor law and Armenia’s international commitments and can effectively represent worker voice and interests with government and employers. This 57-month program, which was originally planned to run from September 7, 2021 to March 31, 2024, was extended and will conclude on June 30, 2026. The program aims to achieve the following objectives and outcomes:

Objective 1: Build the internal capacity of workers, their organizations, and allied CSOs to understand and uphold their rights under Armenian labor law and international labor standards.

Expected Outcomes

• Union partners identified, and baseline union capacity assessed
• Training-of-trainer graduates actively train rank-and-file workers on core labor standards, international mechanisms, collective bargaining, Armenian labor law, including recent labor code reforms, and international labor standards
• Increased knowledge of workers and their organizations, particularly young workers, on their rights and mechanisms to uphold rights under national law and internationally recognized labor standards, including the content of labor reforms
• Enhanced skills of independent worker organizations for organizational development, core union functions, and workplace negotiation and conflict resolution
• Unions and civil society organization (CSO) partners identify worker priorities
• Increased capacity of worker rights activists, leaders, and organizations to effectively channel worker voice to employers and other external entities
• Unions and labor-minded CSOs identify and target gaps in public knowledge of labor rights issues
• Increased capacity of unions and labor-minded civil society to educate the public on labor rights issues where knowledge gaps exist

Objective 2: Support workers to promote integration and enforcement of internationally recognized labor standards and Armenian labor reforms at the workplace level by building worker and worker organization capacity to identify violations, collectively negotiate with employers, and file complaints with authorities.

Expected Outcomes

• Enhanced worker understanding of new labor inspectorate and mechanisms for recourse and remedy
• Enhanced ability of workers and worker organizations to identify labor violations
• Enhanced ability of workers and worker organizations to engage the labor inspectorate to address labor rights violations
• Worker organizations implement strategic plans for monitoring, documenting worker rights violations in workplaces and taking action to remedy them
• Workers and worker organizations file complaints with the appropriate authorities
• Unions identify gaps in public knowledge of labor rights violations and mechanisms to address them, as well as gaps where current protections are not strong enough to prevent violations of international labor standards
• Unions and government bodies have an increased shared understanding of further steps needed to address common violations of international labor standards
• Workers in sectors where labor rights violations are common have increased understanding of how to identify and address those violations under existing law

Objective 3: Strengthen worker organizations’ representation of worker voice and interests with government and employers on the labor reform process and labor code amendments.

Expected Outcomes

• Enhanced worker and worker organization understanding of the labor reform process
• Worker advocacy coalition established, operational and able to advocate and collaborate with government agencies
• Enhanced ability of labor actors and allies to effectively advocate for internationally recognized labor standards, in collaboration with government and employer stakeholders
• Needed policy change recommendations advanced in conjunction with government bodies and employers, including on issues that disproportionately affect women in the workforce
• Unions and CSOs identify policy gaps relevant to their sectors for future advocacy
• Strengthened coordination between unions/CSOs and government bodies to advance further labor reforms
• Government officials are equipped with policy proposals to advance at the legislative table

1.2. Project Targeted Group and Countries of Focus

The program is being conducted throughout Armenia, working directly with worker activists and their organizations. The Solidarity Center is engaging workers and trade unions across a wide variety of economic sectors, including education, health care, agriculture, civil service, public utilities, and others. The program includes a focus on women and young workers and has also sought to include migrant workers, people with disabilities, and people who were displaced from Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023.

1.3. Project Partners

Institutional partnerships with trade unions in Armenia have formed the foundation of the program, with additional working relationships with government bodies and independent labor law experts. The Solidarity Center has primarily partnered with the Confederation of Trade Unions of Armenia (CTUA), its affiliated sectoral unions, and its internal committees to coordinate worker rights training for activists and capacity-building for local and sectoral unions, including on membership engagement and collective bargaining. Through a training-of-trainers activity, the Solidarity Center has recruited and built the capacity of more than a dozen new labor activists from trade unions and labor-minded civil society to educate colleagues in their sectors about their labor rights and the value of exercising their freedom of association through a union. The Solidarity Center has also facilitated unions’ working relationships with the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MLSA) and the Health and Labor Inspection Body (HLIB) to strengthen enforcement of labor law in Armenia and explore policy reforms to expand labor rights protections. Through independent labor lawyers, the Solidarity Center has helped unions and individual workers address labor rights violations on the job and access justice through the judicial process. The Solidarity Center has also convened a working group of labor law experts to advise on labor reform processes, including labor code reforms that were passed in 2023 and proposed amendments to Armenia’s trade union law that have not yet been introduced in parliament.

II EVALUATION PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF WORK

2.1 Evaluation Purpose

The Solidarity Center seeks an external evaluator to conduct an independent midterm evaluation of the Strengthening Worker Rights in Armenia program. The primary evaluation objective is to provide the Solidarity Center with critical information for planning and implementing further activities during the cost extension period. The evaluation will assess program's effectiveness thus far, appropriateness of the program design, and sustainability of the program’s initiatives. Information collected from this evaluation will also identify weaknesses to improve on, needs for future programmatic priorities, and effective approaches, practices, and strategies to continue and replicate in the future. The Solidarity Center will use the findings, conclusions, and recommendations to inform its strategy for continued worker rights programming in Armenia, as well as for designing future programming in Armenia or elsewhere that similarly seeks to improve workers’ understanding of their rights and the ability of trade unions to effectively represent workers’ interests to government and employers.

2.2 Evaluation Questions and Methodology

Following OECD evaluation standards, key evaluation criteria and questions are provided below:

• Relevance:
  • To what extent are the project’s activities responding to the needs and priorities of workers and trade unions in Armenia, with an emphasis on women, youth, and workers from other marginalized communities?
• Coherence:
  • To what extent have external factors (including the policy landscape and other programming) in Armenia affected the project’s ability to increase workers’ understanding of their rights and the ability of trade unions to effectively represent workers’ interests to government and employers?
• Effectiveness:
  • To what extent did the program increase workers’ understanding of their rights and the ability of trade unions to effectively represent workers’ interests to government and employers?
  • How is the program perceived and valued by workers, unions, and other relevant stakeholders?
• Impact:
  • To what extent have changes resulting from program initiatives— expected and unexpected, positive and negative — affected workers, including women, youth, and workers from other marginalized communities?
• Sustainability:
  • To what extent can improvements made to workers’ knowledge of their rights and trade unions’ ability to represent workers’ interests to government and employers be sustained following the completion of this program in 2026?
  • How can the sustainability of the program be further improved?

The selected evaluator will be expected to review and refine the evaluation questions in coordination with the Solidarity Center prior to commencing the evaluation. The evaluation design will include a review of existing program documents and materials, monitoring data, and the program’s logic model.

The Solidarity Center envisions a participatory and complexity-aware methodology that may include outcome harvesting, contribution analysis, process tracing, or collaborative outcomes reporting. Prospective vendors should elaborate their proposed methodologies and data collection techniques in proposals submitted to the Solidarity Center and outline relevant experience they have had in utilizing the methodologies and techniques they have proposed.

The data analysis will be used to provide critical insights into the implementation and results of the program internally and externally. The qualitative data will be complemented with quantitative data from monitoring data and/or other data sources. Attention will be paid to triangulating feedback from different actors to ensure validity.

2.3 Stakeholders Engagement

Stakeholder involvement is critical to the successful implementation of the evaluation. The evaluator is expected to retain independence in developing their analysis regarding program effectiveness and to employ a participatory and collaborative approach to ensure meaningful involvement of Solidarity Center staff, in-country partners, stakeholders, project consultants, and program participants. This collaborative approach also includes gathering feedback from Solidarity Center staff. The following are the key stakeholders:

• Relevant Solidarity Center staff based in headquarters and those involved in the Yerevan field office will support the evaluation design and facilitate implementation. A select group of staff will also be interviewed as part of the evaluation.
• Union and CSO representatives (local leaders, activists, and members involved in this program – either in program delivery or as allies) will be interviewed as part of the evaluation process. Partners will also help facilitate interviews with workers, if possible, and will be engaged in validating key evaluation findings.
• Program participants and beneficiaries, if possible, will be interviewed during the process.

The Solidarity Center will ask unions and civil society organizations to request and arrange for worker stakeholder participation in conversations with the evaluator, as opposed to the evaluator initiating contact with workers. The final evaluation report will also be shared with key partners and individuals participating in the evaluation, enabling them to see how their contributions have been used. Solidarity Center staff will also reference the report in future program planning conversations with these partners, demonstrating learning from the findings.

III WORK PLAN AND EXPECTED DELIVERABLES

3.1 Work Plan (indicative)

The evaluation is expected to be commenced in November 2024 and completed by February 28, 2025. The consultant will be required to provide and confirm a detailed work plan during the inception period. The main activities and evaluation timetable are as follows:

Evaluation Process

Deadline

Responsibility

Selection and award of contract to selected applicant (evaluator)

November 27, 2024

Solidarity Center

Inception report submission

December 13, 2024

Evaluator

Final Approved Inception report

December 20, 2024

Evaluator / SC

Completion of interviews and fieldwork

January 24, 2025

Evaluator

Weekly coordination check-in during fieldwork to discuss progress, obstacles, and support needed (email or call)

Weekly

Evaluator / SC

Data Validation Session

January 31, 2025

Evaluator / SC

Draft report submitted

February 14, 2025

Evaluator

Final report submitted

February 28, 2025

Evaluator / SC

Respond to recommendations and questions from DRL, if applicable, and update report accordingly

March 14, 2025

Evaluator / SC

3.2 Expected Deliverables

The evaluation requires the Evaluator to submit the following deliverables:

a) Final inception report: The inception report will be based on an initial document review and, if needed, preliminary interviews with various stakeholders. Documents will be provided to the evaluator upon full execution of the contract. The report should detail how the evaluation will be implemented, how stakeholders will be engaged, how evaluation questions will be addressed, and what security measures will be taken. The following elements should be included: expectations of the evaluation; any refinements and elaboration of evaluation questions; methods – qualitative and quantitative – and data collection, including possible constraints; outline of the final evaluation report; an evaluation matrix linking questions, methods, data sources, and indicators, among other components that are collaboratively determined with Solidarity Center.

b) Validation session: The evaluator will hold a validation session with the Solidarity Center and partners to present and discuss the evaluation findings and associated lessons.

c) Evaluation report: The report will present the findings of the evaluation in a clear and concise manner. The report will not exceed 35 pages (excluding annexes). A draft report will be sent to Solidarity Center staff for review and written comment. Based on the comments provided, the evaluator will make corrections as warranted to ensure the accuracy of the final report.

d) Evaluation brief: Following the completion of the report, the evaluator will prepare an evaluation brief summarizing the purpose of the evaluation, methodology, findings, and lessons learned. This resource serves as a public-facing document that summarizes the evaluation findings, lessons, and recommendations to encourage the utilization of evidence generated.

e) Learning session: The evaluator will additionally hold a short presentation or "brown bag learning session" on the evaluation for a wider, cross-department SC audience.

IV OPERATIONS

4.1 Roles and Responsibilities

The Solidarity Center will be responsible for:

• Providing technical guidance throughout the implementation of the evaluation;
• Providing access to program data and documents and facilitating access to stakeholders;
• Approving the proposed evaluation plan, including methodology, prior to the start of the evaluation; and
• Reviewing and commenting on drafts of the inception, the evaluation report, and the evaluation brief, among other deliverables.

The Evaluator will be responsible for:

• Developing an evaluation matrix that includes evaluation criteria, evaluation questions, data sources, collection methods, and data analysis methods;
• Collect and review relevant data, reports, and publications as part of the overall analysis and reporting;
• Designing and conducting all necessary qualitative and quantitative assessments and fieldwork;
• Coordinating logistics for the fieldwork, including travel, scheduling, organizing interpreters (with assistance from the Solidarity Center), and hosting focus groups and interviews;
• Overseeing the day-to-day management of the evaluation, including establishing mechanisms to ensure data quality;
• Providing regular formal and informal reporting to the Solidarity Center;
• Participating in key evaluation-related meetings; and
• Producing deliverables (mainly an inception report, evaluation report, and an evaluation brief) in accordance with the Scope of Work and contractual arrangements.
• Present evaluation findings, conclusions, and recommendations (via a data validation session) to the project team, partners, and other stakeholders as relevant.

The evaluator will report to Tetiana Solodovnyk, Country Program Director for Armenia, and Jeffrey Wheeler, Senior Program Officer for Europe and Central Asia, on all issues related to the evaluation, contracts, fees and expenses, deliverables, and commenting/responses processes.

4.2 Data Security and Storage

All information gleaned from participants in the evaluation must remain anonymous. Any personal identifiable data must be collected and stored by the vendor in compliance with relevant regulations in Armenia (Law on Protection of Personal Data adopted on May 18, 2015). The SC has protocols in place in its Washington, D.C. office to handle sensitive information, taking precautions in collecting, entering, storing, and reporting data to protect participants’ personal identifying information and program activities. The SC will work with the evaluator to assess the security risks of the information collected and protocols for secure sharing. Access to data will be restricted to authorized personnel only. The SC will implement the principles of Do No Harm to protect the rights, dignity, and welfare of those involved in the evaluation process during data collection, analysis, and reporting. All information and data generated through the evaluation process will be considered property of the Solidarity Center and cannot be disclosed or shared by the vendor without express prior approval by the Solidarity Center.

V QUALIFICATION, APPLICATION, AND SELECTION

5.1 Qualification of Consultant

The Solidarity Center is seeking an evaluator with experience in evaluating labor-oriented or democracy and governance programs, and familiarity in evaluating U.S. government grant-funded development programs. The evaluator should have excellent written communication skills in English. Knowledge of Armenian or Russian will be considered desirable. While the majority of the in-country evaluation may be conducted in local languages, all key deliverables (mainly the inception report, evaluation report, and evaluation brief) must be provided in English. Should the evaluator require the assistance of an interpreter or translator for any language other than English, the Solidarity Center will cover such expenses as mutually agreed upon.

The evaluator should also have knowledge of gender-sensitive evaluation approaches, preferably in the world of work. Experience with labor rights programs and working with unions and worker organizations as program partners is highly desirable.

5.2 Application and Selection Criteria

Selection of the evaluator will be based on the strength of the qualifications provided by potential candidates through their expressions of interest for the assignment. The application should include:

• Resume and a cover letter stating the qualifications to conduct the evaluation as described above. If the evaluator intends to engage any other party(ies), the application must include a statement of qualifications for the proposed team member(s) as well as an overview of the envisioned roles;
• Technical proposal;
• Two relevant evaluation samples;
• Fixed price per deliverable based on the deliverables listed in the “Workplan and Expected Deliverables” section;
• Names and contacts (telephone and e-mail addresses) of three professional references familiar with candidate’s qualifications and work experience, ideally clients or supervisors for whom the candidate has consulted or worked; and
• Statement of availability for the assignment.

Please send the above materials to europe-central-asia@solidaritycenter.org by November 22, 2024.

NOTE: This Terms of Reference is currently under review by the funder and may be subject to change. The draft will be finalized before contract signature.